Freedom of religion, as currently reinterpreted...

pjohns · Jul 26, 2012

From CNSNews.com:

"The Justice Department last week presented the Newland family of Colorado--who own Hercules Industries, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning business--with what amounted to an ultimatum: Give up your religion or your business.

"'Hercules Industries has made no showing of a religious belief which requires that [it] engage in the [HVAC] business,' the Justice Department said in a formal filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. ...

"The Newlands currently run a self-insurance plan, providing their employees with generous health-care coverage that is consistent with the teachings of the Newlands' church in that it does not cover sterilizations, contraception and abortifacients. They are precisely among the class of people that the unanimous Catholic bishops said have 'no conscience protection at all' under Sebelius's regulation."

Here is the link: DOJ to Colorado Family: Give Up Your Religion or Your Business | CNSNews.com

diamond lil · Jul 27, 2012

pjohns said: ↑

From CNSNews.com:

"The Justice Department last week presented the Newland family of Colorado--who own Hercules Industries, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning business--with what amounted to an ultimatum: Give up your religion or your business.

"'Hercules Industries has made no showing of a religious belief which requires that [it] engage in the [HVAC] business,' the Justice Department said in a formal filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. ...

"The Newlands currently run a self-insurance plan, providing their employees with generous health-care coverage that is consistent with the teachings of the Newlands' church in that it does not cover sterilizations, contraception and abortifacients. They are precisely among the class of people that the unanimous Catholic bishops said have 'no conscience protection at all' under Sebelius's regulation."

Here is the link: DOJ to Colorado Family: Give Up Your Religion or Your Business | CNSNews.com
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They don't need to give up their religion at all. They just have to stop forcing it on their employees.

pjohns · Jul 27, 2012

diamond lil said: ↑

They don't need to give up their religion at all. They just have to stop forcing it on their employees.
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Those who are required to offer healthcare coverage that pays for those things that they consider immoral are, indeed, being required to either give up their religious beliefs or give up their respective businesses...

pjohns · Jul 27, 2012

An update, from Alliance Defending Freedom:

A federal court issued an order Friday that halts enforcement of the Obama administrations abortion pill mandate against a Colorado family-owned business while an Alliance Defending Freedom lawsuit challenging the mandate continues in court. The mandate forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties.
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Here is the link to the entire article: Newland v. Sebelius resource page - Alliance Defending Freedom

waltky · Jul 28, 2012

Judge Lets Catholic Firm Cut Contraception Coverage...

Catholic business owners score win against ObamaCare mandate
July 27, 2012 - The Catholic family that owns a Colorado-based company won a court victory in their battle to stop the Obama administration from requiring them to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception, a mandate they say violates their religious beliefs and First Amendment rights.

Hercules Industries, a Denver-based heating ventilation and air conditioning manufacturer that employs nearly 300 full-time workers, got an injunction in federal court which stops enforcement of the controversial ObamaCare mandate. The company's lawyers said they needed the injunction immediately because if the mandate is enforced, it must begin immediately making changes to its health plan, which renews on Nov. 1. The case is similar to ones brought by Catholic-based colleges that have refused to provide employee insurance with such coverage, except this time, it is a secular corporation. In his order, Colorado District Judge John Kane said that the governments arguments are countered, and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion."

The case still must be aired out in court, but lawyers representing Hercules savored the temporary victory. Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith. For the time being, Hercules Industries will be able to do just that, said Matt Bowman, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, the Arizona-based organization representing the Newlands. The bottom line is that Congress and the Constitution explicitly protect all religious freedom. They dont exclude family businesses. House Speaker John Boehner heralded the court's ruling. "I join millions of my fellow Americans in welcoming this ruling, which is a major victory in the effort to restore the religious liberty that has been demolished by the Obama administration's actions this year," Boehner said.

The Obama administration had argued in a 76-page response that the Newlands challenge rests largely on the theory that a for-profit, secular corporation can claim to exercise a religion and avoid laws regulating commercial activity. This cannot be, the motion reads, citing the 1982 case of United States v. Lee, in which the court held that self-employed Amish workers could be exempt from Social Security taxes, but did not extend the exemption to Amish employers. Indeed, the Supreme Court has recognized that, [w]hen followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice, the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity.

The 35-page complaint, Newland v. Sebelius, was filed in April in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado and U.S. District Judge John Kane is expected to issue an opinion Friday denying or granting the injunction. Defendants named in the lawsuit include Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Department of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The Newlands argue that the mandate forces them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs and unconstitutionally coerces them to violate those Catholic beliefs under threat of fines and penalties, according to court documents. The mandate also forces the plaintiffs to fund government-dictated speech that is directly at odds with the religious ethics derived from their deeply held religious beliefs and the moral teachings of the Catholic Church that they strive to embody in their business, the complaint reads. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller could not be reached for comment early Friday.

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See also:

Iran's birth control policy sent birthrate tumbling
July 22, 2012 - The birthrate plunged, helping to usher in social changes, particularly concerning the role of women.

Since the 1980s, Iran has experienced the largest and fastest drop in fertility ever recorded from about seven births per woman to fewer than two today. "It confounded all conventional wisdom that it could happen in one of the world's few Islamic republics," said Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, a demographer at the University of Tehran. It happened largely because of the Islamic government. In the late 1980s, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's supreme leader, issued fatwas making birth control widely available and acceptable to conservative Muslims. Until then, Khomeini had helped foster a baby boom to produce soldiers for the war against Iraq. After the war, he was persuaded that the economy could no longer support a rapidly growing population.

Under the new decrees, contraceptives could be obtained free at government clinics, including thousands of new rural health centers. Health workers promoted contraception as a way to leave more time between births and help reduce maternal and child mortality. Couples intending to marry were required to receive counseling in family planning. The birthrate plunged, helping to usher in social changes, particularly in the role of women. With smaller families, parents could invest more in their children's education, and the idea caught on even in rural areas.

At the same time, educational opportunities were opening up for girls. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Khomeini had resegregated schools by gender in keeping with his strict interpretation of Islam. One result was that even the most conservative families could send girls to school without worrying that family honor would be tarnished by allowing their daughters to mix with males. As women became better educated, their influence within the family grew. Without intending to, Iran's clerical leadership helped to foster "the empowerment of Iranian women," said Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, an Iran expert at Virginia Tech. "The mullahs may be winning the battle on the streets, but women are winning the battle inside the family."

Iranian woman have fewer legal rights than men and are limited in which jobs they can hold and what they can wear. But more of them are attending universities and postponing childbirth. In public universities, female students now outnumber males 65% to 35%, leading to calls in parliament for affirmative action for men. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, however, has sought to reverse the trend toward smaller families. Doubling the country's population of 75 million would enable Iran to threaten the West, he said. He has denounced the contraceptive program as "a prescription for extinction," called on Iranian girls to marry no later than 16 or 17 and offered bonuses of more than $950 for each child. So far, he has been widely ignored. "Iranian women are not going back," said Sussan Tahmasebi, an Iranian women's rights leader now living in the United States.

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Herby · Jul 29, 2012

waltky said: ↑

Iran's birth control policy sent birthrate tumbling
July 22, 2012 - The birthrate plunged, helping to usher in social changes, particularly concerning the role of women.
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Thank you, Waltky. That's a very interesting article. I was completely unaware of that dramatic development.

By the way, I also found this publication on the subject.
http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/118261

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Freedom of religion, as currently reinterpreted...

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